Second round concluded on a busy Wednesday at the 2017 Rogers Cup in Toronto. The first match of the day on Grandstand saw the biggest upset by ranking so far as CiCi Bellis continued her superb year with a second top ten win of her career over the number eight seed, Svetlana Kuznetsova, 6-4 7-5.
Bellis won five straight games to close out the match, recovering a 2-5 deficit in the second set and saving a set point serving at *4-5 with a cracking backhand winner down-the-line. In the pressure moments at the end of the second set, Bellis was the braver of the pair and a passive, Kuznetsova rather lost her way at the end. This was the first time since Eastbourne last year that Kuznetsova has lost her opening match at a tournament.
I’m more and more impressed with every match I get to watch Bellis play. She handles herself impeccably in the pressure moments and I think it is the mark of a talented player, particularly so early in her career.
Bellis will play Caroline Garcia in the third round after the Frenchwoman had a much more straightforward match compared to Tuesday – Garcia beat Varvara Lepchenko, 6-1 6-4, and didn’t face any break points during the 69 minute contest.
The first two matches on Centre Court were both decided in straight sets as the Wimbledon champion, Garbiñe Muguruza and the new world number one, Karolina Pliskova both won. Muguruza needed two shots at closing out the first set against Kirsten Flipkens before a routine second set in a 7-5 6-2 victory. Pliskova continued her utter dominance over Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova with a 6-3 6-3 win. Pavs is still yet to win more than four games in ten sets against Pliskova.
Lucie Safarova recorded her third straight win in 2017 over the number 11 seed, Dominika Cibulkova, 6-2 6-4. Lucie played a great first set, serving six aces and dropping just two points behind her serve. The Czech player was unable to convert on a 0-40 opening in Cibulkova’s first service game but did so at 2-2 and then ran away with the match for a time. Lucie hit the shot of the match at the start of the second set, a drop shot winner to end a stunning point (see below).
Lucie was up a double break in the second set but was soon pegged back – it was a case of Domi playing much better and Lucie losing focus and missing returns. Lucie seemed to flick the switch with Domi serving at *4-4 *30-0 as she break once more with some penetrating groundstrokes and then held her nerve to serve out the match to 30. This is Lucie’s first tournament since Wimbledon and she’s looking in really decent form, carrying on from what was overall, a great grass court season. Keep going, Lucie!
In a hard fought encounter, Ashleigh Barty knocked out the number 16 seed, Elena Vesnina, 6-3 5-7 6-4. Vesnina produced a costly double fault serving at *4-4 *30-30 in the third set and then Barty managed to draw the Russian player out wide before putting a smash away to break. The Aussie served out the match to love. Barty is enjoying a brilliant season (29-10 W-L record) and it shouldn’t be long until she won’t need to qualify for these types of events. Next up is a Birmingham rematch against Muguruza.
Agnieszka Radwanska backed up an encouraging win over CoCo Vandeweghe with a dominant, 6-0 6-1 win over Timea Babos. Really encouraging to see from Aga who gets BFF, Caroline Wozniacki in the 3rd round. A positive sign that she’s over the viruses that plagued her during the grass court season and her foot is better.
After coming through qualifying, Naomi Osaka has won four matches in a row at a tournament for the first time in 2017. The Japanese player upset the number 15 seed, Anastasija Sevastova, 6-3 6-4.
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The third match in the day session on the Centre Court was a cracker as Venus Williams held off a stunning effort from Bastad champion, Katerina Siniakova to win, 7-5 7-5. The Czech player produced some sensational tennis to stave off eight break points in the second set. Finally, Williams’s pressure told as made the breakthrough and served out the match. There were some stunning points!
Ekaterina Makarova extended her winning streak to seven, saving two match points to defeat Johanna Konta, 5-7 7-6(4) 6-3 in two hours and 25 minutes. Konta was clutch in the first set, recovering from an understandably slow start in her first match since Wimbledon, saving a break point at *2-4 and then breaking Makarova for the set, aided by the Russian player bookending her service game with double faults. Konta was unable to take advantage of a 7-5 5-2 lead and in a high quality match, Makarova battled back.
While I was sleeping…
Sloane Stephens beat Petra Kvitova, 7-6(4) 3-6 6-2 to reach the third round – a great effort from Sloane in just her third tournament back!
A side note – great to see a new edition of the Petra Kvitova magazine thanks to the wonderful PetraKvitovaHeadband Twitter account – a must for all Petra fans!
In the night session on Centre Court, Angelique Kerber and Simona Halep both advanced to the third round with straight set wins.
This made me laugh! 😂
A stunning slate of third round matches is on the schedule for Thursday.
(1) Karolina Pliskova vs. Naomi Osaka
(10) Agnieszka Radwanska vs. (6) Caroline Wozniacki
(3) Angelique Kerber vs. Sloane Stephens
Lucie Safarova vs. Ekaterina Makarova
(5) Elina Svitolina vs. (9) Venus Williams
Ashleigh Barty vs. (4) Garbiñe Muguruza
CiCi Bellis vs. Caroline Garcia
Barbora Strycova vs. (2) Simona Halep
What’s your pick of the matches?
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A full match preview is up on the blog for an intriguing all-seeded third rounder between Elina Svitolina and Venus Williams.
And finally, a duo of polls is up for Caro vs. Aga and Garbiñe vs. Ash.
Please note that there will be no post on Thursday as i’m going to the World Athletic Championships in London!
Moo's Tennis Blog 
Thanks for the post James. I wish I had time to comment on everything individually (especially since the athletics now is dividing my attention) but it’s good to see Aga back playing at close to her full strength and playing her “ninja shots” again, like her amazing backhand slice against Coco, which landed plumb on the line and won “shot of the day” on Monday.
(I thought it was funny too when Pat Cash said something to Coco like, “Have you finished playing really crap?” and then remembered the cameras were watching.)
I agree that CiCi’s playing with extraordinary confidence and maturity for an 18 year old. Aga was absolutely right to say “the kids are coming” (players like Bianca Andreescu and Marketa Vondrousa are exciting prospects for the future too).
Lucie’s playing well too, as is Sloane who’s come back from injury problems. Someone said on Tennis Forum that Petra doesn’t seem to play well at night, and I think they may have a point.
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No problem, Graham. I’ll be at the Athletics tonight so no post for Thursday sadly! Yes, I wasn’t too hopeful for Petra with the Konta-Makarova match taking quite a while.
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As much as I’m enjoying seeing Muguruza really step up to the plate and being the champion that everybody expected her to be, I’d love to see Ashleigh Barty score another upset over her and make the Quarters. Everybody is talking about young talents like Bellis, Konjuh and Osaka, but Barty herself has only just turned 21 and is really going from strength to strength AND she seems to really adapt well to each individual surface.
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One thing I’ve noticed from Siniakova is that although she’s very impressive at scrambling and hits some great winners, she drops the ball far too short a lot of the time. Against somebody who likes to step into the court and dictate like Venus, that’s never going to be successful really.
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Surefire vs The Bookies
The Bookies have no backbone as they have 3 of the 8 matches as even(E)
Bookies—Bellis/Garcia(E), Saf/Mak(E), Svit/Will(E), Ka Plis, Woz, Halep, Kerber, Mug
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Surefire—Garcia, Saf, Svit, Ka Plis, Woz, Halep, SS, Mug
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Will Surefire be shirtless and shoeless ?? Tune in tomorrow, same Moo time same, same Moo channel.
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Bookies– 4W-1L…..The bookies had 3 even picks which I didn’t count.
Surefire– 8W-0L…..Prefect score…rolling in virtual money
Going wild and crazy, money is no object, planning an all I can eat pig out with not one but two pacts of Ramen noodles……..total cost 30 cents!!!!
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Ha well done, Ziggy!
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Full house on one of the outside courts to watch Ka Plis, and Bouchard in a dubs match. Big cheer whenever Bouchard made a winning shot. Plis/Bouch lost to Green/Peach in the 3rd set 11/9.
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Pingback: Wednesday’s Set Points, WTA Toronto: Bellis scores 2nd top 10 win, Safarova beats Cibulkova — Moo’s Tennis Blog – DonTurnerTennis
Surefire has no backbone, Rogers Cup QFs matches too close to call.
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What’s goin on in the mug vs svit game??? Been interrupted for light years now??
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The Cincinnati Draw is ludicrous!!!
They have 4 count’em 4 matches with Qualifier vs Qualifier in the first round
But they have 3 matches with Top Stars vs Top Stars——-Kvitova(14)/Kontaveit(28)–KooKoo Van(20)/Keys(17)–Konjuh(22)/Cibulkova(11)
In big tournaments like Cincinnati ($2 million) the should seed the top half (32). They should not be eliminating all of these Top Stars in the first round.
(The Top Star matches do not include the Wild Cards)
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